The Non Reality That's All Too Real
by KantoShanto
Summary: In a futile attempt to escape the real world, which seemingly harbors far too many problems and grievances for Rutohiko Aki, he indulges himself into the virtual one. Yet, as he attempts to run away from one nightmare, he is unwillingly thrust into another far worse than he could ever imagine.
1. Welcome to Your New Life

It was always an odd feeling.

The feeling of cyberspace completely enveloping his body, pixels substituting for the all-to-grey appearance of his cramped bedroom. Even with his multiple ventures into the Nervegear world, he never could get used to it. Yet, this rather expensive device gave him a happiness that for the most part, real life couldn't. I gave him a sense that he could escape, escape the true world and indulge in non-reality while feeling as if he wasn't running away. Of course, he was running away, running away from his troubles and problems, yet at the same time, unbeknownst to him, he was about to fall straight into an unearthly hell.

"I need to enter my username? Cmon, the "Remember Me" feature shouldn't stop working just because the public release is out." He begrudgingly entered Akihiko into the highlighted field, a combination of Aki and Rutohiko, his first and last names. It wasn't a very clever or inventive name to say the slightest, yet he wasn't one to really obsess over the aesthetics of his character. Sure, he did a little bit of character customization, mainly because he wanted some differentiation between himself and the other 9,999 players, many of whom would likely just go with the default model. Then again, he really only made himself look like a different average-joe, and if he got caught in a crowd, he wouldn't stand out. As he completed his login, a small circle spinning around and around greeted him, indicating that it was loading in all of his pre-recorded data into the virtual reality world. After a few moments of anxious waiting, the circle disappeared, and he started to feel his body materialize into the game. The rather bland lobby screen transformed almost instantaneously into the bright and vivid colors of the Town of Beginnings. Even though he had logged on as soon as he could, the starting area was already swamped with new and seasoned players. He caught a glance of one or two of the latter, yet the newbies stretched on beyond the eye could see.

_"Great, just what I needed, a packed crowd." _He opened up a menu, and looked at his buddy list. "_Empty. Damn. Now I'm going to have to find them all over again." _"Them referred to a group of six other individuals, all except for one he knew exclusively from the internet. His only friend to make it into the beta test was a guy named Haruka Kurai, who, despite the intimidating name, was one of the most laid-back people he knew. They attended the same High School, Aki being a second year and Haruka a first year, and while they weren't particularly close, they were more than simple acquaintances. "_I have his number, I'll just call him to arms and have him track everyone down once the wave of people diminishes." _At that thought, he tucked his hands into his brown cloak's pockets, and began on his journey.

He was gathering when it happened. He had just plucked an uncommon healing herb when the landscape of forest was replaced by that all-too-familiar town. It took him by surprise, yet at the same time, it didn't arouse any panic or confusion, as in the beta test a Gamemaster would gather up all of the online players to explain new features or warn them of common glitches. Of course, the new players, many of whom unaccustomed to Virtual Reality itself, quickly started to contemplate loudly on what was going on. Some were frantic, others seemed to be complacent, but all shared the same look of curiosity. And while most individual conversations were masked, he heard three recurring words that were oddly frightening to him. "No logout button." It wasn't just one new guy who didn't know how to navigate the menus, it was dozens upon dozens repeating that exact sentence, and in a futile effort to tell himself that they were wrong, he pulled up the menu for himself. That attempt was futile due to the fact that they were not wrong, the log-out feature had been removed, haphazardly wiped from his existence. It was unnerving that he might be stuck in this world for a few more hours, while he liked it more than real life in many aspects, he had been planning on finishing _Clannad _after he had completed his playthrough for the day. "_Heh. I guess I'll just be up all night, sleep's overrated anyways." _He laughed at that, and relaxed his physique. Due to his prior experience, it was little surprise to see a looming creature suddenly emerge out of seemingly nothingness, and instantly identified the character model to SAO's creator, Akihiko Kayaba. After a few moments of the crowd silencing itself in anticipation, he finally spoke.

"I'm sure you've already noticed." He spoke in a voice that was deep and commanding, reminiscent of some of Aki's stricter professors. "That the logout button is missing from the main menu. Yet this is not a fault in the game, but instead a _feature _of Sword Art Online."

"F-Feature!?" Panicked voices started to murmur around him, as the collective crowd started to realize what this meant. Yet, Akihiko was not done in his explanation.

"You cannot log out of SAO yourselves, and at the same time, if any outside source attempts to disable or interfere with the Nervegear, it will emit a powerful microwave transmission and end your life."

The panic was now growing to be indiscernable, with the structure starting to fade away. Some were crying, others trying to escape the spawn area in the thought that they could possibly escape their fate. And some, like Aki, were frozen in sheer terror.

"And by far my most important message to you is to notify you that there is no longer any method or way to revive a fellow character in the game. If your HP drops to 0, your life in Aincrad as well as the Earth will be briskly ended." He paused, possibly in an effort to let that message sink in before continuing. "In order for you to escape this life, you must defeat every single floor from here, floor one, to floor one hundred. There are no alternative ways of leaving Sword Art Online."

The rest, the surprise of the mirror and the change back to his true face, including his long brown bangs that liked to part in odd places, was truly a blur. That last line refused to stop playing in his head.

_"There are no alternative ways of leaving Sword Art Online... There are no alternative ways of leaving Sword Art Online... There are no alternative ways of leaving Sword Art Online..." _


	2. Reunited

"Oi! Midorin! We need to go!" That was Aki's voice, muffled by the rustling of leaves in the wind.

"One more minnnuttteeeeeee!" A petite voice responded, causing him to sigh and sit.

"She'll never let us leave until she spears something with her bow, will she, Kame?" He asked, looking at a girl with navy blue hair cut just above her shoulders.

"Well... That always has been Midorin, hasn't it?" She said, talking whilst she opened up her inventory. "Perfect, I got all the herbs I need for crafting." She smiled and closed the menu. A dedicated healer in the beta, she had chosen not to change her ways in the real deal. "You know, I never thought I'd be a doctor, yet it seems that this world has made me one."

"Granted, none of us thought that we'd be sword-wielding warriors in real life either, did we?" A tall and well built member of the guild asked, his name, Katsu, displayed in the top left of Aki's screen.

"We'll have hell of a story to tell, won't we?" Aki leaned back, staring at the artificial sun. "God, it's bright out."

"I'M BAAACCCKKKK!" A small female figure burst through the underbrush, faceplanting onto the soft soil. "Look what I got guys! Look what I got!"

Aki turned to look at her, some curiosity piqued within himself wondering if she had actually gotten something valuable. Nope, just a plain old entry level rabbit. He rolled his eyes and body back over and started to stand up. "Does that mean we can go now Midorin? Are you satisfied?"

"Mhm!" Midorin smiled widely, selecting and inserting the rabbit into her inventory. "Now I have the very first stage of the hunting stat. I'm going to provide all of you incapable people with goodies!" She was apparently just a year younger than Aki, yet she gave off the impression that she was just a tall seven year old.

"I hate to break it to you, but all of us have gotten past the third stage of hunting already." An almost equally sized boy said, adjusting his very own quiver as he spoke.

"Awww! Shou! You're always so mean!"

"Mean? How is that mean? I'm just stati-"

"Cause it is!"

"I'm just saying that we're slightly more skilled than you..."

"What did you just say!?"

The going nowhere conversation faded to back of Aki's perception, he was lost in his thoughts. Thoughts about their lives in peril intertwined with the wonder of how they'd tracked everybody down. Well, admittedly, Haruka had found all of them except for Kame, who Aki found attempting to buy healing herbs at the stater shop. She was shockingly unfazed at their situation, almost to the point where it was creepy. Though he saw someone's reaction could be to kick all operations into gear in an attempt to gain the upper hand. This world combined aspects of all for one and survival of the fittest. Depending on the person, they'd choose one or the other, as there was no true middle ground. Someone could change sides, but _no one _could remain in that middle. Aki chose the former, as reports of player crime had started to circulate, typically acted on loner players with little means to defend themselves. There were even a guild or two filled with _only _criminals, and if one were to meet their members face to face, they'd very likely stumble upon one with a red indicator around them. Murderers. SAO was unique in the fact that it had a system that would recognize players whom committed crimes, and display them. Green for innocent, orange for mid-level criminals, robbers and the like, and then the aforementioned red for murderers. If this was a game, those indicators would mean very little. Many people play MMOs to act as a villain persona, and were seen as a challenge by players. Something refreshing, fun or exciting. Now however, these normal people who had a few days ago logged in as innocent people with innocent lives, were brutal killers. At least, that was true if Kabaya was telling the truth about the fact that death in the game meant death in real life. If that was just an elaborate lie, one to make an environment that subjects would _think _it was life or death when it really wasn't, then the murderers were actually saviors. Murderers, saviors. God, what a sick but potentially accurate comparison.

His thoughts were wandering now, as they commonly did. It was hard not to have his thoughts wander, anything to get him out of the present. However, in the present, life was still going on, with Aki being snapped back to virtual reality by the hand of Haruka on his shoulder.

"Oi, Akihiko, we just passed the third town." He gave him a sympathetic look. "You okay?"

"O-Oh.. Yeah, yeah I am. Just thinking..."

"Heh. Aren't we all." He murmured, before turning around and raising his voice. "Alright! We gotta turn back guys, we just missed the turn."

"Reeeh... We have to backtrack?" Midorin started to complain, yet complied nontheless. "We didn't have this much walking yesterday.."

"Once you see this town's inn, I don't think you'll be complaining." Kame stated, looking at the guide book. "Seems as if they've updated it from the beta version. There's a sauna."

"Really!?" Midorin's eyes lit up at that. "Yaaaayyyyy!" She took off in an excitement that could only be fueled by the prospect of sleep.

"Heh... A sauna. Maybe this won't be that bad after all.." He said to himself, before calling to Midorin to wait up. _"Won't be that bad after all..." _


	3. Corrupted

"Eh!? What do you mean we only have enough money for one room!?"

"As I told you, the room rates are exceptionally high in this town due to the huge demand. Each room costs 60 gold per night."

"W-Well, what about some haggling? We only have 90 gold total..."

"I am sorry, this establishment does not budge on it's prices."

"Gaaaaahhhhhh!" Aki slammed his hand down on the reception desk not in anger, but in frustration. They _had _to buy something, as the NPC had locked Midorin in the sauna she'd oh-too-quickly rushed into. Until they paid him some money, he wouldn't let her out either. "Fine fine... We'll take one room."

"Thank you for your purchase. Your room has been allotted to you based on your dimensions, and will open to only someone with your dimensions. Your room is number 09." The NPC responded in a humanoid voice, however it's stiffness of speech gave away that it was a program rather than a person. Once he saw his cut of the room fee disappear from his reserves, the NPC reached over to the door, undid a physical lock, and opened the door. Instantly, a cherry red Midorin fell forward, just as she had in the forest earlier, panting.

"H-Heh... That... Was... Great..." She kept panting and breathing in between breaths, the heat obviously taken some kind of a toll.

"I think you overdid the sauna experience Midorin-chan..." Kame said, giggling.

"H-Hehh... We got our rooms?" Midorin asked, teetering side to side as if she had gotten up too quickly.

"Uh, actually, only one room." Katsu corrected her, before turning towards Aki. "So how is this going to work out Akihiko?"

"Well, if there are two bunkbeds, two of us can sleep on the floor." He reasoned, hoping that this hotel was made to accommodate large parties.

It wasn't.

The very moment that Aki opened the door, he groaned in disappointment. The room was small, with a single bed that could hardly fit Midorin, the smallest of the group. Before anyone could remark on it or start making negotiations on whom would have the privileged mattress, Midorin sprinted forward and jumped onto the bed. In a defensive manner, she stretched her tiny body so that there was hardly an inch available from every single direction.

"H-heh..." That final laugh was a mixture of exhaustion and mischievousness, and the other five stood in the doorway in a sort of disbelief.

"Did she..."

"She did..."

"Remind me why we keep her around?" Shou muttered, staring at her strewn out body in discontent.

"Because she's a better archer than you are." Haruka softly pushed him. "So the question is, why do we keep _you _around."

"Because..." Even though he knew Haruka was joking, he was still trying to figure out an answer to that question. "Because my shortness makes me cute and a possible subject of slash-fiction in my fellow party member's minds?"

The only response Shou got was two looks of disbelief from Katsu and Aki, while Haruka and Kame exchanged a glance.

"Slash... Fiction?" Aki repeated. A internet frequenter, he knew the term, I mean, who didn't? It was everywhere on the internet, as fangirls and guys alike taking their favorite characters and then boom, there'd be a relationship. He could understand why some would read said fiction, but imagining others imagining them in a relationship? Seemed like Shou had an incorrect perception of what goes on in others minds...

"Well... I could see you with Katsu, Shou." Kame said, giggling as she did earlier

"W-Wait, with me!?" Katsu looked at her as if she was even crazier. "Oi! Don't make me the subject of your fantasies Kame!"

"It's too late Katsu, once you're in, you're in." Haruka smirked. "There's no possible intervention at this point, she's far too gone to be saved."

"You too Haruka!? She's corrupted you to the point where you're _familiar _with this!?"

He retained this smug look, and seemed as if he was a master teaching an apprentice. "You see, I've been well aware of Kame's fantasies since the start of our group's adventure in the beta. Isn't that right, Kame?"

"Mhm!"

"You see, the average female mind possesses many many ships or pairings, whether the characters are living or fictional is beyond the point. Somewhere there is a pairing, though some have this form of sickness worse than others." No, scratch the master description. He was more of a doctor explaining a diagnosis to a patient. "Simply put, Kame's one of the world's worse sufferers, if you can believe it. You're forever doomed to be matched with someone Katsu, and at the moment, it's little Shou here." He gestured to the boy, who like Midorin, matched them in age but not in body. "And let's be honest, that's not a bad pairing."

"I'm done!" Katsu raised his arms in the air, as if to signal his surrender. "I will see you guys later, I need to take a walk to clear these images out of my head."

"Do you want me to come with you for protection, Katsu?" Aki asked, bemused by the situation.

"No! Don't! If you do that, she'll change the ship from Shou to Akihiko!" Haruka seemed truly frantic, as if he needed to protect the Shou/Katsu ship as it's captain.

"Ooh, what a nice suggestion Haruka-kun!" Kame said, causing Haruka to inhale dramatically. "But that ship wouldn't work, they're too alike."

"Hmm... I guess you're right.." He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm, Katsu, what do you think?" Haruka looked over, only to see that their longswordsman had left the building. "Hmph."

**(Why hello there! My name is Kanto, and I am the author of this piece here. Typically I insert little side notes like this before and/or after the chapter ends, yet for whatever reason I haven't placed a single one in yet until this point. But, since you've just finished the third chapter of my story, I feel an obligation to thank you for reading up to this point, and I hope that you continue to read on as I provide you chapters! ^-^) **


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